


Stories of the Second Self: Hunger of Steel Dragons

by John_Steiner



Series: Alter Idem [146]
Category: Urban Fantasy - Fandom
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-14
Updated: 2020-02-14
Packaged: 2021-02-28 03:33:28
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,540
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22706995
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/John_Steiner/pseuds/John_Steiner
Summary: Unaware that the age of Alter Idem has come, two Amazonian tribes each accept the change from human to supernatural. However, the threat from tree-devouring metal monsters still encroaches deeper into their lands. The tribes have to combine their strengths to combat the common enemy that hungers for the whole jungle.
Series: Alter Idem [146]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1618813





	Stories of the Second Self: Hunger of Steel Dragons

We are Awá, 'The People' in our speech. The elders said to me and to others in the tribe that we were once the only true people. Then we met the Guajajara, who also say that their name means 'People' just as Awá does for us.

On the outside, we once looked similar under our traditional clothes. The Guajajara warned us of The Strangers who devour trees and tame unimaginable beasts which breathe smoke. They told us that The Strangers want to eat our homes, and that we were powerless to stop them. Yet, the forest graced each tribe with spirits to give them strength to resist.

Then came a day when the Guajajara approached us for help.

I went out hunting with my bow, now that I've passed my rite to be declared a man. U'jadari rushed out of the jungle toward me. I recognized him instantly, though his hair now grew from the sides of his neck.

"The smoking beasts crawl this way," U'jadari shouted and pointed back, "The Strangers say they now take all forest for eating!"

I said that we used to look alike, the Awá and the Guajajara. Then each tribe were gifted spirits of power. The Guajajara tribe now held the power to shift into something like a dog, but it was an animal none of us had seen before its spirit bloomed within the Guajajara.

The spirit chosen for Awá was something I cannot describe. We now have antlers of various forms, with those of the Elders being largest and most branched, like trees. This is unlike the deer of our lands. Every Awá walk upon hooves now, and this served us well. Our ears became pointed and our nose bridges wider. Indeed our foreheads appeared sturdier and our necks stronger to carry these antlers. Another difference between the Awá and the Guajajara is that we could not change as they do, but we held the power to disguise ourselves and other tricks to the eyes of outsiders, even the Guajajara.

"Show me!" I waved in the direction U'jadari had pointed.

"No time, Rola," U'jadari said to me, "I'm going to warn your Elders!"

U'jadari dashed off toward my village, and I darted after him. His people, like mine, never wore anything on our feet, and our newfound spirit only added advantage upon us for that.

I could tell from the way his head moved that U'jadari was tracing my scent back to the village. We stayed on the move, though my Elders told us that in a time before I was born we stayed in one place many times longer than we do now.

Once through the wood, U'jadari and I entered into the clearing that I recognized as familiar since the Awá set up our village here a couple growings of the moon ago. Older men, more seasoned in hunting, jumped at U'jadari's arrival and reached for their bows until recognizing him and me coming through after.

"It's U'jadari," I declared to the older men, "He comes to warn us of danger. We go to the Elders that they will hear this."

The oldest of the Elders had her hut built on the east-most side of the village, that she may know the sunrise before all others. One could never know if it would be her last, though the Eldest seemed healthier and more able since the time of spirits began.

"Awá Elder," U'jadari declared outside her hut, having the politeness not to just rush in, as though he were raised proper Awá.

"U'jadari," Elder Sai'wa bid from inside, "What bothers you so?"

"Strangers, Elder," U'jadari replied, his voice just as fearful as when he came to me. "They're coming to eat the last of of the green world!"

The green world was our forest, and though the Guajajara had traveled further than we, they said that they had never laid eyes on another. They believed that these strangers from some other world had since eaten the green everywhere else and came for the last to ever grow.

"I'll gather the other Elders," Elder Sai'wa announced as she came out with a nod, "Fear not child, we will accept the Guajajara among us and protect you as you had protected us before the time of spirits."

"Thank you, Elder Sai'wa," U'jadari praised with his face reddening and tears forming. "I must go tell my tribe to come at once!"

This time when U'jadari ran off I could see more hair sprout from his body. The Guajajara developed a courtesy of coming to us in their hairless skin that we not be alarmed, and only after recognized would the turn to their dog-like form if the need arose.

Elder Sai'wa went to each hut of the Elders, all arrayed toward the east, and summed the sagest of the Awá. Her antlers each numbed four more than all my fingers on both hands, and that was just for one. Other elders had no more than one more point than all fingers, and many had fewer still. One's antlers were a sign of their power and, some suspected, how old one would become before they returned to the earth.

I grew but three on each side, though I was content with my place, just as Awá Elders taught that we must be content with the green world we have left.

Elder Sai'wa and the rest strode in the general direction that U'jadari had indicated, and the men of the village, myself included escorted them with our bows, arrows, and spears.

With her eyes closed, Elder Sai'wa unerringly navigated the forest, even with her hoof steps, until we came upon a new clearing. None of us had gone to the forest edge before, though it seemed not so far away as stories told. Beyond stretched brown earth, freshly sheered of green, and something else none of us had ever seen.

Above, stretched endless... I didn't even know what color to call it. It reminded me of the plumage on some birds, but so much of it! The bright white of sunlight was more or less known to us, but not this endless roof it ruled over during the day.

"Such monstrous things," Elder Sai'wa decreed, waving at the large orange and yellow creatures.

A couple had arcing necks with half a jaw that moved like a man's hand, if held inward for scooping. Others had no head to speak of, just a plane with rows of teeth grown from a belt-like thing around the edge of the plane. Still more stretched out with skeletal backs and clusters of circular legs that always turned over and over without end. Some of those lay burdened with trees lacking limbs, and the rest awaited such loads to haul away. Littler among then strode The Strangers U'jadari spoke of.

Seeing them alongside, I came to know the horrific size of these hard-skinned monsters, and fell to my knees in dread ready to burst out crying like I were still a toddler.

"Come now Rola." Elder Sai'wa's hand around my upper arm was smoother than before the time of spirits, and she bid me back on my feet. "It's not proper for a man to crumble before an enemy of the Awá. We need you to be strong, just as we Elders will be strong."

"What are we to do?" another man begged of the Elders.

"Smoke," Elder Sai'wa noticed from the active beasts, having not heard U'jadari describe them. "They eat with fire, and that is their defecation."

"Where do you suppose this eating happens in them?" another elder bid.

Elder Sai'wa reached out with her hand and closed her eyes to see beyond. After a moment, she nodded and made an upward tossing gesture while rubbing her thumb against her fingertips.

One of the lesser hard beasts, colored white and carrying a Stranger inside a black cage of smooth rock, just stopped and seemed to hiccup in violent lurches.

"They hunger, so we will feed them more than they can chew," Elder Sai'wa announced.

A moment later, and fire erupted from the lesser white hard-skinned beast, with heavier black smoke blowing from what Rola could only take to be the thing's tube-like anus sticking up in the air. The Stranger riding on it bailed out heedless of his monster's fate. Fire spread over the thing, and eventually a color liken to the sky grew from the flames. Even the monster's invulnerable hard skin seemed to burn.

Elder Sai'wa led the other Elders in mustering magic against the rest of the spinning legged beasts of varying horrific description. One by one they all burned, and the Strangers among them fled back to whatever unfathomable death world they hailed from.

Though it was a victory for the Awá and Guajajara, I felt that it wasn't over. Elder Sai'wa must've have suspected likewise, for she declared the village site no longer blessed. We were to leave, but with less than ever before.

Again using her magic, newly gifted in this time of spirits, she burned our huts rather than bid then dismantled. She decreed that we were to be a hidden people who leave no trace of where we hence dwelt.


End file.
